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Though it may seem that COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions are slowly going down the Northwestern Health Unit doesn’t think the COVID-19 peak has been reached.
In a media briefing on Wednesday (January 27, 2022), Dr. Kit Young Hoon Medical Officer of Health for the NWHU touched on the region's increasing test positivity rate that needs to be monitored.
“That needs to be monitored closely to see if it will eventually come down,” Young Hoon said.
The region's top doctor also noted the health unit will also be closely monitoring hospitalization numbers across the district.
“The peak of hospitalizations tends to occur after the peak in case numbers. I don’t believe we’ve reached our peak at this point.”
The rolling seven-day positivity rate for this week is sitting at 24. 2 per cent, which jumped five per cent from last week.
“This highlights how transmissible and fast-spreading the Omicron variant is.”
Though the rate is increasing Young Hoon is still encouraging residents to get vaccinated to prevent more hospitalizations.
“The COVID vaccine is saving lives, and I encourage you to get vaccinated as soon as possible.” Young Hoon said. “Our case and contact management are seeing that when they manage outbreaks in high-risk settings that vaccination makes a significant difference in reducing the risk of people being hospitalized.”
As of January 25, 2022, 90 per cent of all ages have gotten one dose, 86.5 per cent are fully immunized, and 43.9 per cent have received their booster dose.
The NWHU has administered 174,737 doses of the vaccine.